July 27 – August 3, 2013
Tahitian sunset overlooking Moorea
overlooking Moorea, Tahiti's sister island
One of the first things we purchased were ready-made burger patties, hamburger buns, cheese, and a mega bag of frozen French fries. Cheeseburges and French fries never tasted so yummy!
Tahitian beer & New Zealand burgers
We were only going to spend a few days in the area of Marina Taina and Papeete, but re-provisioning and finding boat parts took a little extra time. We were also waiting on a package from Wil’s mom. For three days in a row, Wil took a bus into Papeete to track down replacement or spare parts. The kids and I had no desire to go into the busy city, so while Wil ran errands, we spent the week finishing up our school year. Completing school was a huge load off all of our shoulders!
Wil was exhausted by three days of travel into the bustling city of Papeete, but he saw a lot of interesting sights that made it worth it.
toilet seats with style in Ace Hardware, Papeete
m/y Arctic is one of the private luxury yachts docked in Papeete
m/y A ~ a unique German design at dock in Papeete
check out the storage garage & the crew cleaning the sides!
superyacht A
at our anchorage locals training for outrigger canoe races
Wil couldn’t pass up the opportunity to find some good surf. Passe de Taapuna is a popular surf break. It has a similar style reef break to Teahupoo, so many surfers train here before they move up to the big stuff. Wil, Gavin (s/v Pacific Flyer), and Paul (s/v MacPelican) would dinghy out to the pass together and enjoy the waves. It was good to see Wil get his surf fix.
the north side of Passe de Taapuna ~ a common sight in this part of Tahiti
floating bars anchored over the sandbar
not anyone we know, but fun to watch
cruisers anchor their dinghies near this break for a chance at some waves
Passe de Taapuna ~ a smaller, but similar wave to Teahupoo
While still in Tahiti, we had a good look at our torn genaker. The tear was much more than I could manage on my own, so were in need of a sail repair shop. After much research and talking to a lot of people, we learned about a sailmaker in Raiatea who did good quality work for a really great price. Tahiti was not the place to have a sail repaired due to high cost, poor quality, and the complication of sail transport. Therfore, we made plans to get to Raiatea as soon as possible.
As much as we wanted to see Tahiti’s sister island, Moorea, time was running short, and we had to get to Raiatea for the sail repair. The moment we made plans to sail straight to Raiatea, we got word from s/v Sueño. They had gone to Moorea to meet up with visiting family, and their sail drive needed oil. We used oil delivery as the perfect excuse to make a one or two day stop to see Moorea and catch up with our good buddies. We’d also heard it was possible to swim with sharks and sting rays!
